# Yi Gu's Manager Readme

**Head of Engineering at Mercor**

# Yi Gu — Manager README

Head of Engineering, Mercor · 5+ years of management experience

# Why I wrote this

So candidates can understand our operating model and my management philosophy before joining: less guessing, more doing.

# My management philosophy: Responsibility and Freedom

Deeply influenced by Netflix's "Freedom & Responsibility" culture: hire only trustworthy adults, give real ownership, and keep the bar high.

- Context, not control: I'll give you full context (why we're doing it, the constraints, the strategy), and the decision is yours.
- Manage by task-relevant maturity (Andy Grove, _High Output Management_): there's no single right management style — what matters is your maturity on _this specific task_, not your title. The more senior you are on it, the less I'll decide for you — I'll offer frameworks and suggestions, you make the call. A line I say a lot: "Want to give it a try?"
- Done = delivered on time + high quality + measurable impact. Impact is measured with data, not vibes.

# My role

My output is my team's output. I spend my time on three things: setting clear goals, removing blockers for you, and helping you grow (mostly through weekly 1:1s focused on career development).

# What I value most

- The best way to help me: give me context early, disagree with me directly, tell me what I don't want to hear but need to hear.
- Disagree with me openly, then commit fully once a decision is made.
- Mistakes: come to me early. Lead with facts, then the signal (what happened, what we learned). Worthwhile lessons go into retros. Small mistakes aren't a big deal — hiding them is.

# My expectations

- Definition of done: on time, high quality, impact measured with data.
- Feedback goes both ways and comes with no surprises: I'll be direct when something's off, and I expect the same from you. Nothing in a performance review should be the first time you're hearing it.
- Reaching me: match the channel to the importance and urgency. Small things — ping me directly. Things needing deep thought — book calendar time in advance. Default to async for updates; use synchronous time for decisions and debates.

# 1:1s

- Weekly, and you run it — it's your meeting, not mine. Come prepared with topics you want to discuss.
- Not for status updates. For career development: growth, confusion, ambition, friction — the things you can't talk about anywhere else.
- Bring a short agenda — even three bullets is fine. If there's genuinely nothing, we can skip, but don't let it slide for weeks.

# Quirks

- What makes me happiest: hearing people praise my team members, praise my team. You'll see my eyes light up.